As usual, the project was harder than I anticipated. For some reason, I thought that there would be lots of simple instructions on the web; I knew I hadn’t just dreamed up the idea. But when it came down to it, most of the instructions looked a bit too complicated for our group of 24 second through fourth graders. You can judge for yourself:

We don’t have a soldering iron, and I didn’t like the look of binder clips on a greeting card, so I pulled together what I’d learned from the above resources, and came up with a variation that would work for us. First we made Mother’s Day cards. Next I came up with a prototype for Father’s Day cards that they can make at home using the supplies we have provided in a baggie.

The main items you need to make this work are:

Copper Tape (available on Amazon.com) – about 6-8 inches for each card

LED Stickers (available at Maker Shed or Chibitronics) NOTE: You can also use LED’s with resistors instead of the stickers. – 1 for each card

Coin Cell 3V batteries (available on Amazon.com) – 1 for each card

Chibitronics has a good Starter Kit that is available at several online stores. It includes a “Sketchbook” which you can also download for free here. We introduced the students to what we were going to be doing by having them do the simple circuit on page 20.

The hardest thing for the young ones is keeping the copper tape in one piece around the corners. Instead of cutting it for your corners, you need to fold it over itself to ensure conductivity continues.

Noticing their difficulty, and worried about time constraints for the Mother’s Day cards, I went ahead and applied the copper tape to the die-cut hearts ahead of time. The students added the rest. You can see some of the results below.

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Each student had 2 die-cut hearts – the bottom one with the circuit and a top one that they wrote on and I punched a hole in. To affix the battery to the bottom, they used glue dots (be careful that the dot is not too high or it will keep the battery from connecting with the tape). To affix the top heart to the bottom we used foam mounting squares similar to these.

I didn’t want to leave fathers out, but we only have one more Maker Club meeting. So, I made a new prototype and we will be giving the students these instructions along with the pieces for assembly. The basic circuit construction is the same as the Mother’s Day card. I plan to encourage the students to make their own design, but I know that many of the younger ones, in particular, will prefer having some guidelines.

For today’s Gifts for the Gifted post, I’m going to rewind all the way back to July of this year. Back then, I wrote about a product called Circuit Stickers from Chibitronics. I realize that the word “stickers” might make you grimace. But don’t stop reading, because these are not your ordinary stickers you can buy in packs of 4 sheets at Walmart. These are stickers that light up – if you arrange them the right way.

The Sketchbook is very important. It’s kind of a workbook, and very helpful to non-electricians like my daughter and me. I’m embarrassed to say that I never made a circuit in my life until I ordered this kit. The workbook is very good at scaffolding circuitry, and suggesting ideas to build on each little project.

Once you “get” circuits, you can really get creative with the stickers, as the video from Chibitronics will show. You can design cards and make fun jewelry or other fashion statements.

Speaking of cards, you can buy a holiday greeting card kit from Chibitronics here for $25. It includes L.E.D. stickers and materials to make 3 cards.

If you have a child that is in to “making,” then you should definitely check out the Circuit Stickers. For other Maker ideas, check out my Make Pinterest Board.

My Gifts for the Gifted series of posts will appear every Friday in November and December. Here are links to the first two that I’ve done so far this year: Osmo and Shell Game. You can see even more gift recommendations on this Pinterest Board.

There are so many wonderful things that have happened in my classroom as a result of resources people have shared on Twitter, and I have a feeling Chibitronics will be another one that I can add to the list this year.

@GingerLewman tweeted about a Chibitronics kit that she was eagerly anticipating last week. The name caught my interest so I visited the web site. When I saw the product, I knew immediately that I had to try it out. I went with the Advanced Kit because, well, it just had so many cool things included and I hadn’t spent money on anything fun all summer yet 😉

Chibitronics offers circuit stickers. These are stickers that can be re-used a few times, and include sensor stickers, effects stickers, and LED’s. Included in the kits are also some conductive tape (which I can already tell will need to be replenished very soon), batteries, and a Sketchbook.

The Sketchbook is not just a blank book. It includes instructions and templates as well as prompts for creative elaboration on each project. The Sketchbook and the video tutorials (which can be found on their main page) have been highly advantageous for my daughter and I since we are both completely ignorant about electronics – aside from our MaKey MaKey adventures.

Conductive tape can be purchased separately (Amazon, for one, offers different sizes), as can the batteries. I think one Sketchbook is fine. But I am going to need to set aside a serious budget for those stickers. We are having such a great time making LED’s blink and fade and twinkle that I have a feeling we will have used the entire supply before it ever makes it to my classroom Maker Studio!

I have been collecting other resources for “making” on this Pinterest Board if you are interested.